Monday, September 26, 2005

I don't know 'bout you all, but I LOVE Autumn! Okay, okay, we don't have real seasons out here in sunny So Cal (constantly reminded of this by my East Coast buds), but I'm a native so I don't know any better. Ignorance is definitely bliss. Anyway, Autumn! Love the chill in the air, sitting all bundled up in front of the ole gas log, knitting, crocheting or sewing away, getting the urge to actually enter the kitchen and cook (my hubby drops down on his knees thanking the Lord-y above for this Autumnal ritual) and I love, love, love the fact that ORANGE is one of the primary colors of the season. Orange rocks peeps...very underrated color IMHO. Now, add black to orange and what do you get? No, not just a darker shade of orange, but the school colors of one of my favorite holidays...HALLOWEEN! Wooo hooo!

What do I do to ring in All Hallow's Eve for the ENTIRE MONTH of October? Decorate, of course! However, not just any decorations will do. No. My decorations lean toward the boned variety. Yep, I love skeletons! I know, it's weird. But I do love them. I collect AND MAKE skellies throughout the year. The hubby thinks I am a bit disturbed, but names our newly acquired or created bony buddies as they arrive on the scene.

So far I've made two life-size skellies. One set of bones is a skeleton antimacassar, filet crocheted with size 10 white thread. This good buddy can be attached to your favorite chair with twisted upholstery tacks for good measure. Sorry for the poor picture quality. This thing is IMPOSSIBLE to photograph well.

As I said above, when all doilies are combined this skellie is life-size. I charted each doily by hand on graph paper. The entire project took several months.

The second set of bones was created by using a combination of sewing, applique and embroidery in felt. Oh, and each and every stitch was done by hand. Again, this bone momma is life-size, reversible AND articulated! As with the filet skeleton, I worked on this piece for several months before finishing it to my liking.

Your standard white and black...

Reverses to a lovely green version...

BTW, the larger black spaces on the feet are embroidered. That is not applique. It is thousands upon thousands of embroidery stitches! Yep, I'm a bit anal retentive. Like you hadn't figured that out after looking at the filet skeleton!

Currently, I am knitting a life-size fair isle skeleton. This one, like it's embroidered predecessor, will be reversible. I knit quite fast and I am using my dog-eared filet charts from the antimacassar as the basis of my fair isle pattern. So I do not anticipate this skellie taking many months to complete like the last one. Patterning (which takes up a lot of time) is already taken care of. Yay! I'll show pics of this baby in another post.

In addition to my handcrafted skellies, I also purchase interesting skeletons when I see them here and there, throughout the year. Here are a few from my collection:

Wire Skellie...

Wood Skellie...

Nutcracker Skellie...

Jack Skellie...

When I accumulate a little disposable dough I am definitely going to buy a life-size skellie here.

Now, it's not all about skeletons over here. Oh no, I like to add other delightful decor to the hallowed halls of Linoleum Halloweendom as well. Also part of this theme are my Nightmare Before Christmas (jeez, this movie is 12 years old already???) figures. Just started collecting these. So far I have the Mayor of Halloweentown and Jack Skellington (shown above). These guys sit on my mantel and actually stay there until Christmas due to their dual-themed nature.

I finish off my decor with tons of pumpkins, gourds and Indian corn (sorry guys!). It's a family tradition to hit Lombardi Ranch every year and load up on fall harvest treasures. If you're in the Los Angeles area, this family farm is a must do for any Halloween/Autumn junkie. They have a HUGE scarecrow competition every year, a bazillion pumpkins ranging from infant to Godzilla size, live music, square dancing...it's a rip-roaring good time! Highly recommended.

Here's a few more Halloween decor sites to peruse at your leisure...

For eminently stylish Halloween decor and ideas, try Martha Stewart. Don't have enough time to grown your own pumpkins, make your own carving tools and dip your own candles to light your very industrious jack-o-lanterns? Try Plum Party for a fun array of Halloween-y decor. Are you more of a vintage Halloween decor aficionado? Take a looksee at Dragonfly Design Studio or get a few Victorian Halloween decorating tips here. Who says you cannot have a Halloween tree? Why should Christmas be the only holiday with dedicated flora? Need to put your mad scientist lab together stat? Go here, now, before it's too late! Maybe your Halloween inspired decor goal is to the scare the pants off of the neighborhood kids. Yeah? Well, pay a visit here for ideas, advice and products to successfully erect the creepiest haunted house in your hood. How about a little Edward Gorey gear to darken your October domicile? Create your own Halloweentown with crafty goth creepies from Elizabeth McGrath's dark dominion. Don't want to shop for October decor at all? Rather craft your own bats and vamps and skellies and pumpkins? Here's a bloggy community you'll love! Halloween crochet patterns galore here. Amazing Halloween craft kits that will spook up your house and keep your kids occupied for hours here. Check out the Graveyard Garden! No list such as this would be complete without the Halloween overload superstore, Oriental Trading Co. OTC has more plastic crap than you can shake a stick at. If you've never visited OTC, it's worth a jaw-dropping looksee.

Whew! I haven't even begun to talk about costumes yet. Oh yeah, you know I dress up...This year I'm thinkin' about orderin' some costume-y delights from here.

26 comments:

that is some crazy assed work regina. just when i thought i had seen some of the craziest, wonderful stuff here you pull out the ol' skellies. i love it, a doily skeleton........one of a kind! and the embroidered skeleton....???? so artistic. i cant wait to see the fairisle guy!

Jana, I'm just killing time...no, really, I just wanted to show some of my big pieces 'cuz I've just been doing the little stuff this year. Last year was the year of the ginormous project for me. But I am picking that trend right back up with the fair isle skeleton. Lookin' good so far.

Love those skellies girl! All Hallows Eve is the best Holiday....to recognize that fact they give us the next day off here in Europe to recover from the mad and wild times often had around the city! We taught the Belgies last year how to carve a pumpkin....great times! Will be waiting with anticipation to see the fair isle skeleton.

That crocheted skellie is amazing! Do you name your skellies too? I totally would, esp the ones I made. I'm not sure all the names I could come up with, but "Mr. Bone-Jangles" is jumping out at me, hehehe

Love them all! I'm a big Halloween fan, too. It's almost time to get out Quoth, the Rubber Raven, who, like your Nightmare figures, graces our house until December (wearing a Santa hat in Nov. & Dec. :).

You'll take some pictures of your house when it's all decorated, won't you? To share? :)

When I taught Pre-Kinder, we'd do a science unit on the body around October... we weren't "allowed" to "do" Halloween... sigh.

BUT.. heehhee we got in a few skeletons by teaching body parts, pumpkins by teaching seeds, plant parts and oh yes, "decay".. (you watch the pumpkin decay into mulch--a rural district does have it's advantages) and costumes by having a "career dress up parade". Amazing how many kids wanted to grow up to be superheroes.

Anyway, when I introduced the skeleton I'd get out my favorite plastic fellow on a nice springy elastic band, and hold him up from the head and sing:

"If it get's too hot for comfort,And you can't get ice cream cones,It ain't no sin,Just take off your skin,And dance around in your bones!"

Then we'd dance our boney selves... (well... I'm not very boney, but they're there. Just well padded)

We LOVE Lombardi Ranch! We went there for the first time last year (it was a bit of a trek for usfrom the LBC) but such a great adventure! Our favorite part was walking through the fields of sunflowers that displayed the scarecrows! BTW You are a crochet goddess!

Antimacassar Skeleton!!! Brilliant! I absolutely love it. My Dad told me the origin of the word "antimacassar." In the ol' days, there was a brand of men's hair oil/dressing called Macassar. When they leaned their heads on the chairback, the upholstery got all oily. So, ladies started crocheting Anti-Macassars!!! I'd drape the Skellie Antimacassar on my entire couch. Since orange is your fave color, it's only natural that Halloween is your fave holiday! Keep up the excellent work!

Love that crochet skeleton! Oh and of course the Nightmare before Christmas is awesome.I want to be the dark Alice in Wonderland this year. I went through a phase when all I wanted to be was a cat. Did that for a long time. And now I need to find other areas to spook in.:)

Your skellies rock...but holy heck a life size filet crochet skellie in thread....I bow down. The rest of the totally rock too....but I bow down on the thread filet one. I can't make anything bigger than a bookmark with thread yet ;)

You guys rock! When I was making this thing, I was thinking, wow, what have I started (filet guy)? I'm too anal to give up on it mid-way. So, I have to finish this no matter how long it takes...I actually really like working on long projects.

Love the skellies! Oh man I love Edward Gorey. I can't decide what to be for Halloween this year. I'm thinking the Queen of Hearts, I have the coolest crown somewhere....time to get out the costume box I guess.I have Martha Stewart's Halloween book, it's wonderful! Tons of great ideas.